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15-HUNTING ME

Author: J L FLETCHER
last update publish date: 2026-04-16 03:02:45

“How did you know I would be at the docks?” Rose asked, the thought catching up with her as they moved together beneath the low hum of music and candlelight.

“I didn’t,” Kaelyn replied, his voice sure, unhurried. “The summit finished early, so I went to find you at Howl at the Moon. Ethan told me where you were.”

Her gaze sharpened slightly.

“And Bianca never thought to tell you?”

His jaw shifted just enough for her to notice.

“I never asked her,” he said, the words measured. “And I don’t want to talk about her. Not when I have you in my arms.”

That should have annoyed her.

Instead, something in her chest tightened.

“You’re treating me like I’m someone special,” she said, studying him carefully, searching for something solid beneath everything he was showing her. “But you barely know me. How can any of this be real?”

For a moment, he didn’t answer.

His hand slid lower along her back, drawing her closer, and she let him, even as her pulse began to climb again.

“I’ve been asking myself the same question,” he said.

That unsettled her more than any smooth answer would have.

The moment stretched, charged with something neither of them fully understood.

“You know the inquisitors,” she said after a beat. “And the queen?”

“In passing,” he replied. “I make sure I know what moves in every arena. I have to.” His eyes held hers, unreadable. “She is no friend of mine, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Rose nodded in understanding.

“For eighteen years,” she said, her voice lowering, “I didn’t even know they existed. I thought I was just… a wolf.” She let out a quiet breath, the weight of it still settling. “And now I find out something is hunting me. Something that will probably kill me.”

Kaelyn’s expression changed, something sharper slipping beneath the calm.

“Rose,” he said, his voice dropping, more focused now. “I will protect you.”

His fingers slid beneath her chin, tilting her face up until she had no choice but to meet his eyes.

“I need you to understand that,” he continued. “You have to trust me.”

Her breath caught.

Trust him.

A man who had just admitted what he was.

A man who had proven it.

He held her tighter, closing the last inch of space between them.

“Just so you know,” he said, something darker threading through his tone, “I am exactly what they say I am. Men fear me. Beasts fear me. I am the monster in their stories.”

The words should have terrified her.

They didn’t.

“Yet for some reason I can’t explain,” he murmured, his hand tightening slightly at her waist, “you make me want to be something else.”

Her pulse hammered.

“It is only you, Rose.”

The music slowed around them, wrapping close, turning the space into something intimate, almost unreal.

Rose leaned into him without meaning to, her body responding before her mind could catch up, the heat between them building, steady and insistent.

His hand moved again, tracing a slow path along her back, pulling her closer, grounding her, and unraveling her at the same time.

Her breath came faster now, uneven, her thoughts slipping into visions of him.

Her fingers curled into his shirt.

He leaned in, his mouth finding hers again, slower this time, deeper. They were lost in the kiss.

For a moment, she let herself fall into it.

She let herself forget and let herself feel.

A delicious ache spread between her legs; every touch was electric.

The tension sharpened.

And then…

Her phone rang.

The sound cut through everything.

Rose pulled back sharply, her breath uneven, her thoughts scrambling to catch up.

“It’s Vivian,” she said quickly, already reaching for it. “She wouldn’t call me like this unless something was wrong.”

Kaelyn stepped back just enough to give her space, though his attention never left her.

Rose answered immediately.

“Viv?”

What came through the line wasn’t calm.

It was panic.

“Heeelp me, Rose, please, you have to help me,” Vivian’s voice broke through in ragged breaths, fear raw and unfiltered. “That vampire woman is here. She’s at my house. I know she wants to kill me. I’ve got my kids here, please, you have to hurry.”

Rose’s blood ran cold.

“Are you sure it’s her?”

“Yes, it’s her,” Vivian cried. “I didn’t invite her in, I swear, I didn’t…”

Something crashed loudly in the background.

A scream tore through the line.

“I’ve got the garlic up,” Vivian sobbed. “I think it’s working, I think…”

Her voice broke completely.

“Oh no… oh no, no, no…”

Rose’s grip tightened on the phone.

“Viv, stay with me, I’m coming.”

“She’s inside,” Vivian cried, her voice rising into pure terror. “She’s in my house, Rose. She’s come here to kill me.”

The line was filled with chaos.

And then, silence.

The line went dead.

 

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